Slash And Burn Baby

Reason magazine offers its suggestions on how to reduce government. I wish we'd do the same. Maybe Maclean's should do it since they seem to possess a set of balls.

Of course, I'd like to hear from my Yankee friends on this subject.

Just a couple of thoughts:

On the Davis-Bacon bill:

"For nearly 80 years, contractors working on federally funded construction projects have been forced to pay their workers artificially inflated wages that rip off American taxpayers while lining the pockets of organized labor."

Wow. Sounds exactly like here in Quebec. At least Americans are debating it - even if they idiotically charge each other with racism. The discussion is out there. Here, the second we bring something up it's a "vicious attack on Quebec" thus slashing what could be a meaningful debate.

On the economic front, despite what some respected economists say, I just don't see enough evidence that suggests stimulus did what it's claimed to have done. Namely, increase jobs and save the economy from the "brink." I suppose it all depends where you think the "brink" was.

It's claimed jobs have been created (and from what I read there is a net job increase) yet the unemployment continues to rise. Equally ironic is the GDP - luckily - remains on the positive if not stable. But that doesn't mean it was thanks to the stimulus.

Now. About the Canadian welfare state. After talking to my buddy last night, I thought about the government and the show Hoarders. From the outside, the house looks normal. When you go in, you realize it's abnormal. "What. The. Frick?" you say to yourself.

Still. I left a comment on Skeptical Eye arguing given man's nature, we need the state if anything but as an arbitrator managing our virtues and vices. Its objective is to maintain and protect our basic rights and in some cases ensure the "general welfare" of its citizens. It's a contract.

However, I do feel that contract is now heavily in favor of the state. How far can the state go, say, with the "general welfare?" Does it mean it can control every facet of our lives?

Like in sports where in some eras the owners have the edge on the players (and vice-versa), as it stands, the government has the advantage. It has so many laws and department on its books it crossed the line of merely being a partner in society to one in which it dictates to citizens what it can and can't do.

"The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the society" as our friend Tacitus once observed.

I would love to see how organically how some of these laws are born.